Broken
by labellebeaucoup
Summary: Karen, on a downward spiral, gets sent to live with her father and his new wife. Can she face the pressures of dealing with her parents' divorce, her father's new marriage, and being the daughter of the president?


**A/N – I originally wrote this story as a Twific, but couldn't shake the nagging voice in my head telling me that it would make a much better Scandal story. After struggling through 3 chapters, I decided to take down the Twilight version of this story and begin anew as an Olitz fic. **

**This is completely AU. Fitz and Mellie are divorced and Olivia is the First Lady. To give a little background – it will come out in the story too, Fitz and Mellie divorced while he was still a governor and they never had Jerry or Teddy. This story revolves a lot around Karen with plenty of Olitz thrown in the mix. – G.**

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><p><em><span>Broken<span>_

_Chapter One:_

_All Alone_

_**Prologue:**_

"Alright Karen," A stocky, dark-haired boy shouted from the circle that had gathered around the short, brown haired girl chugging shot after shot of tequila. The boys and girls were smacking their hands together, creating loud noises of applause as the tiny girl in front of them downed the clear liquid in the glasses.

"Karen! Karen! Karen!" Someone started in the back, complete with fist pumping. The noise in the dirty living room littered with beer cans, empty bottles of liquor, and bags of marijuana; continued to grow. No one noticed that the small brunette's pupils were growing larger by the minute. No one noticed that her breathing had slowed until it was barely a gasp every ten seconds. And no one noticed that her skin was slowly losing its color; turning a ghastly pale blue.

The occupants in the room jumped at the sound of a loud crash. They looked at the table, finding it turned on its side and the shot glasses lying on the wooden floor in hundreds of tiny pieces. Amongst the glass, Karen Grant lay face down, her hand bleeding from the impact with a shard of crystal.

A group of guys rushed forward, some shouting for an ambulance to be called while others rolled Karen onto her back. Her eyes were tightly closed, her breathing shallow. They tried shaking her, saying her name. Despite their efforts, she still would not open her eyes.

"Karen," One of the girls shouted, putting her hands on the unconscious teenager's shoulders and shaking. There was still no response.

Sirens were heard outside the home as the group continued taking turns attempting to wake their friend. Paramedics in blue uniforms rushed in, shoving the stunned group out of their way. They knelt beside Karen, working to place an oxygen mask over her face. Her breathing had only begun to grow shallower.

One of the paramedics, a tall, red-headed man, lifted Karen and placed on her the blue gurney they had brought with them. The second paramedic, a petite blonde, wrapped a white blanket around Karen's body before helping the man strap her in. They quickly rolled the gurney to the ambulance and began the short journey to Dell Children's Medical Center.

At the hospital, Karen was rushed to a room where a doctor and nurses quickly worked on a tracheostomy before performing the necessary operation of pumping her stomach. After they had managed to regulate her breathing and blood alcohol levels, the nurses began looking for contact information.

Going through Karen's jacket, the nurses finally found her cellphone. They went through the call log, hitting the one that simply said 'mom'. It wasn't long before a frantic Melody Grant answered on the other line.

"Karen, where **are **you?" Her voice was high, frantic as it came through the phone speaker.

"Is this Karen Grant's mother?" The nurse asked, politely.

"Oh dear," Mellie groaned, her voice shaking, "Who is this?"

"Mrs. Grant…" The nurse began.

"Ms. Grant."

"My apologies, Ms. Grant," The nurse tried again, tightening her hold on the phone. She didn't like to deliver this kind of news to a parent especially such a high profile parent. "Karen is currently at Dell. She was brought here for alcohol poisoning and we have been treating her since one this morning."

"Is she okay? Why am I just _now_ getting this call?" Mellie demanded, her voice raising another octave.

"Ms. Grant, as I said, your daughter had alcohol poisoning and we were not able to locate contact information before now," The nurse explained, keeping her voice soft and even. She had two teenage daughters of her own and could imagine how she would react to this kind of information. It would be heartbreaking for any mother.

"I'm on my way." With that, Mellie slammed her phone shut and jumped out of bed, waking her fiancé of one year, Andrew Nichols.

"Honey, what's wrong?" Andrew asked, sitting up in bed and watching as his fiancée was pulling blue jeans and a t-shirt from the closet.

"Karen's in the hospital." The response was tense as she yanked her jeans over her hips, quickly buttoning and zipping them.

"Why?" Andrew questioned more, getting out of bed himself and beginning to pull clothes on. Though she wasn't his daughter, Andrew cared for Karen because of her affiliation to Mellie.

"Alcohol poisoning." She continued to pull her clothes on, stopping to find a pair of slip-on shoes she could wear. Andrew dressed as quickly as she had, dropping the rest of his questions for her sake. She appeared to be on the verge of a breakdown.

Andrew grabbed his keys from the peg by the door and ushered Mellie out. He helped her into the car – she was shaking too hard to be able to climb in by herself. She sat in silence on the way to the hospital, unwilling to carry on any conversation that Andrew attempted to start.

She rested her head against the cool glass, watching the city pass by in a blur. She felt numb. What had she done to her daughter that would force her to act out this way? What had _they _done?

Her thoughts turned to her ex-husband. They had divorced seven years ago, when Karen was nine. It felt like a relief to her and Fitz once they had signed those papers. There had been nothing but fighting amongst the two for several years. It was painful for both of them and they agreed it couldn't have been good for Karen.

Fitz had remarried a year ago. If Karen was unhappy when Mellie started dating Andrew, she was irate when Fitz remarried. He had invited his only child to his wedding only to have her hang up the phone, tear the invitation, and slam her bedroom door in her mother's face. She still had not warmed to the idea of her father's new wife; hadn't even met her.

"Mellie!" Slowly she blinked her eyes, snapping out of her thoughts and staring blankly at her husband. He stood before her, waving a hand in front of her face as he tried coaxing her out of the vehicle. She shook her head, trying to clear the fog from her brain, and placed her hand in his – allowing him to lead her to the ER entrance.

They found Karen, paler than normal, sleeping in a tiny bed near the back of the long hospital wing they had been directed to. Mellie felt her legs wobble and Andrew reached out to wrap an arm around her waist, preventing her from collapsing to the floor. Tears began streaming down her face as she took in the still form of her only child.

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><p>"<em>Who calls someone at three in the morning?" <em>That thought resonated through Fitzgerald Grant's groggy, sleep laden brain as he tossed the covers from his body and stalked, angrily, toward the phone that sat on the oak dress. It was his own personal line – not a call from any agency.

"Hello?" His tone wasn't kind. He snuck a look at Olivia, his wife of a little over a year. She was still sleeping peacefully, her hair spread out over the pillow and her hand on her not so flat abdomen. They had found out they were expecting a little over three months ago.

"Fitz?" That voice gave him pause. He wasn't expecting to hear his ex-wife and he sure wasn't expecting to hear her voice at three in the morning. His thoughts instantly went to his daughter. What had happened to Karen?

"Mellie? Where's Karen? What's wrong?" Fitz fired the questions off a mile a minute.

"Oh Fitz," Mellie sniffled, on the verge of tears, "Karen is in the hospital…alcohol…poisoning."

"Calm down. You aren't making any sense. What happened?" He tried again, hoping that he would get a more accurate answer this time and not the jumbled mess he had just received.

"She was at a party with her friends…I told her she could go…I gave her permission." More rambling, although this time it seemed to have some direction. Fitz sighed, took one final look at his sleeping wife, and carried the phone out of the bedroom. He padded across the carpeted floor, heading toward the balcony.

The night air was cool against his bare chest and the smell of rain was heavy. It had rained for the last few days – luckily the drizzle had died down for the moment.

"What happened at the party?" Fitz probed, knowing that that had to have something to do with Karen's condition.

"She obviously drank too much if she's been hospitalized for alcohol poisoning," Mellie snapped, still sniffling.

"How is she now?" He had to know. He hadn't been the best father recently. He had been conspicuously absent for the last seven years. He only saw his daughter on occasion and most of the time; she tried her best to get away from him.

"She's fine _now_. I…I wanted to ask you for a favor." Fitz furrowed his eyebrows. His daughter was in the hospital, possibly could have _died_, and she was asking for a favor? He sighed and reminded himself to hear her out before he started yelling.

"What?"

"I don't like the idea of Karen being around her so called friends anymore. She needs away from them. Away from this city. It obviously isn't doing her any favors," Mellie started.

"What are you asking?" Dare he hope that she was asking what he thought? That she wanted him to take Karen in? A smile spread across his face at the thought of having his only, soon to be oldest, child stay with him.

But he would have to ask Olivia first. He didn't expect her to say no, but he never knew.

"You want Karen to stay with me?"

"Can she?"

"We would love to have her. Of course, I have to ask Olivia first."

"Oh," She sounded disappointed. She had hoped that he would agree right away and take her mind off what had happened. Different scenarios of future incidents ran through her head if she allowed Karen to stay in Austin. She couldn't do it.

"I'll call back in the morning." With that, he hung up the phone and reentered the house. He made his way back to his room – a large smile on his face and the determination to speak to Olivia in the morning about Karen's possible relocation.


End file.
